Moving the goalposts, 9/11 Edition

The Bush Administration may be on its way out, but their breathtaking douchebaggery is endless!

In a press conference at the White House yesterday, press secretary Dana Perino revealed the new Official Bush Administration Excuse For Not Finding Osama Bin Laden -- because Osama Bin Laden didn't do it!:

We all knew that was coming, it was just a matter of when. Hopefully someone will make sure John McCain gets the memo.

Where were you when the fun stopped?

When it happened it was immediately understood that somebody, somewhere was going to pay, and pay big. But who could have imagined the price: Orwellian endless war with multiple nations on the other side of the world, an ongoing state of government-generated low-level panic, powerful people driving the world into the abyss, cheered on by the media, while the rest of us hang on white-knuckled and stupidly horrified, gouging at each other with whatever weaponry we can get our hands on.

I remember at first there were a few weeks of worldwide, heartfelt solidarity. That went the way of all good things; the people in a position to manipulate us realized there was more money to be made from pants-pissing fear than courageous solidarity. With the spectre of planes slamming into skyscrapers as an ever-present backdrop, the politics of paranoia and division started in a big way. Divide and conquer. Then the lies, lies, lies, repeated until it was impossible to tell them from truth. What truth? Whose truth? The truth became a negotiable commodity, and remains so. Six years ago, who could have anticipated how royally we'd fuck this up?

It's raining today at Ground Zero, the flip side of the sunny summer morning six years ago when a low-flying plane approached New York City. And the fun stopped.

EDIT: A more thoughtful, articulate analysis at Canuck Attitude.

Ooops

Back in May, France elected a right-wing, pro-American government led by Nicolas Sarkozy. Improved relations between the two countries were naturally anticipated:

"The victory of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential elections on Sunday will likely bring about a shift in the foreign policy of the country, William Keylor, professor of international relations and history at Boston University and a specialist in French politics said. While Keylor noted that the election was fought on domestic issues, he said that Sarkozy would have a more pro-American stance and would like be willing to cooperate more with the U.S."

Well that's special, Nicky and Georgie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. But I wonder what Georgie thinks of this:

"A senior French politician, now a minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, suggested last year that U.S. President George W. Bush might have been behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to a website."

The www.ReOpen911.info website, which promotes September 11 conspiracy theories, has posted a video clip of French Housing Minister Christine Boutin appearing to question that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group orchestrated the attacks. Boutin's office sought to play down the remarks.

Asked in an interview last November, before she became minister, whether she thought Bush might be behind the attacks, Boutin says: "I think it is possible. I think it is possible."

Georgie, listen up. This is what your friends are saying about you. You know, the people who are, like, on your side. Time to gooo-ooooo.